In the case where a fire occurs in a building, an elevator stops a normal operation and carries out an emergency operation, that is, guides a passenger thereof to an evacuation floor. For example, Patent Document 1 describes an elevator control device in a single car elevator system in which only one car runs in a single hoistway. In the elevator control device, fire detecting means such as a fire sensor is provided on each floor in a building and stop floor selecting means collates a signal output from the fire detecting means with a signal output from priority stop floor storing means storing a priority stop floor which is previously ranked, and automatically selects the evacuation floor of the elevator, thereby controlling an elevator control panel. According to the present invention, an emergency operation which avoids a stop on a floor in which the fire occurs is automatically carried out. Thus, a smooth and safe evacuation of a passenger thereof is ensured.
In the case of a multi-car elevator system in which a plurality of cars run along a single hoistway, however, it is necessary to control an operation in such a manner that cars do not collide with each other as described in Patent Document 3, and the elevator control device in Patent Document 1 cannot be applied to the multi-car elevator system.
As an example of a fire emergency operation in the multi-car elevator system, in the case where the emergency operation in an occurrence of a disaster is carried out in the apparatus for operating an elevator described in Patent Document 2, an emergency operation for a lower car is completed and the lower car is then caused to move from an evacuation floor to a lower floor, and an emergency operation for an upper car is subsequently carried out. Consequently, it is possible to carry out a rapid emergency operation in an earthquake emergency operation and a fire emergency operation.